After a recent phone call, I figured it was time to list another of our goals for the New Year.
Like many people, we have set a budget for the new year, but the key to sticking to the budget (and what our goal is) is to pay for purchases with CASH.
That's right! I don't just mean saving up for a new t.v. or piece of furniture. This is for groceries, clothing, hair cuts, etc. I set aside a specific amount every week to use and that is it!
Now - what prompted me to share this goal? When Eric started his new job over a year ago, the cost of health insurance through his new employer for all 3 of us was outrageous. Looking for a better rate, and wanting to have some piece of mind should Eric ever decide to change jobs again, Melissa and I enrolled in individual plans through Scott and White (because S&W is the only company to offer maternity coverage on individual plans). After only about 6 months, the premiums (for the 2 of us) shot up. Folks, our family is currently paying a little over $900 a month for heath insurance premiums and some specific prescriptions every month. This does not include a trip to the doctor if Melissa is sick. It does not include the contacts I need to see (I'm blind as a bat!). That is over $10,000 a year.
I called S&W last week to find out any information for the new year since I have to submit my flex plan information (at which point I'm locked in for the year). Of course they don't expect anything until March, but the rep I spoke to said that if our premium increased, it would be just a little bit, nothing major like last year. We are going to have some issues if our premiums go up even a "little bit". So it is very important that we stick to the budget we have set up for the new year!
Of course, this brings up the question - what else can we change to free up some money? We are possibly looking at selling a vehicle, we've cut cable, and I'm always on the lookout for coupons to use or markdowns at the grocery store. We recently switched insurance companies to lower our home and auto premiums. Once the new health plans come out, we'll seriously have to consider whether we should change the plan we have in order to lower our premium, even if it means we pay more out of pocket down the road.
Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on how to save money - either with health insurance or in any other way?
I've found some great blogs that encourage smart financial moves and great ways to save money and wanted to share a few of them below.
www.moneysavingmom.com
Do you have any favorites that I should add?
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http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/
ReplyDeleteand
http://www.wisebread.com/
are two more money blogs that I think are good
Wow. Just wow. $10K a year is a LOT. Are you sure that's less expensive than dropping the insurance altogether and putting the money in a bank account instead? "Self-insured" is what Dave Ramsey calls it. LOVE Dave Ramsey - if you've never read his stuff (I can't remember if we've talked about it before), you should definitely give it a look.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to clarify, Dave Ramsey does not suggest you self-insure in lieu of health insurance (http://www.daveramsey.com/article/how-to-save-money-on-health-insurance/lifeandmoney_insurance/), he says you should self-insure in lieu of *life* insurance. There's a big difference. Please do not drop your health insurance, even as expensive as it may be.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the additional blogs Peter!
ReplyDeleteHoon-thanks for the article. I actually knew that self-insure was for life insurance only, mainly because of my job. We have several clients who can self insure, and I would love to be there one day!
Are you talking about an HSA plan Sara? We looked at it, but when Eric couldn't get coverage through S&W, it didn't make sense for us to use that plan at the time.
We purposefully chose a higher premium plan with less out of pocket, simply because when I had my unexpected C-section, I was afraid of having one again. If I did, the out of pocket cost would far exceed any savings by dropping to a lower premium plan. Also, when we initially enrolled in the plan, our premiums were much lower. Even when they jacked the rates up, the alternatives weren't that much better, so we just stayed with what we had.
I'm going to re-evaluate when the new plans come out in March/April.